"Look and see, for everyone is coming home!" Isaiah 60:4

Wednesday, May 29, 2013

So, if you're following along with me, I was to tackle Day 7 of this challenge exactly 13 days ago. !!! Seriously, has it taken me this long to get it done??

Um...yeah.

Let's back up. I left off talking about the fall and how it is evident almost everywhere we look. Our world tends toward chaos, disaster, despair, and disorder because of the fall. We as humans tend toward those things as well. It's summed up in our sinful nature. Our homes are also subject to the same kind of results because of the fall.

It takes work to keep things in order and when you have to do it day by day praying you're making progress along the way, it's VERY difficult. I never put two and two together in that just as our hearts, our sin natures are part of the fall, so is the chaos in our homes.

But there is hope!
Romans 8:20-21 states: 20 For the creation was subjected to futility—not willingly, but because of Him who subjected it—in the hope 21 that the creation itself will also be set free from the bondage of corruption into the glorious freedom of God’s children. (HCSB)Our hope to be set free from the bondage of corruption is in Jesus Christ alone! There is a way out of the despair, away from the disaster and disorder. Only through Jesus and His saving power can we ever have a hope of digging our way out of the rubble. We have so much more than what meets the eye against us, but we also have our God who is bigger than all of that and who is FOR us, if we so choose to trust in Him. Little by little I am learning this along with a host of other things God the Holy Spirit has chosen to show me and teach me. I still feel overwhelmed at the thought of it all, so I try to not dwell on all that has to be done. When I do get overwhelmed I remember that this is exactly what the enemy wants me to feel because it brings a false sense of defeat. It paralyzes me and makes me feel like he wins. If he can get a foothold there, then he can get a foothold elsewhere too to whisper lies into my ears. As another part of this challenge, I had to clean out my kitchen cabinets, purge and rearrange. Well, that was what was mostly holding me up from an "official" update for this passage. I finally got it all done yesterday! Here's my progress and what I ended up throwing out/donating:

Over the past thirteen days I've thrown out/recycled/donated a total of 56 items! YAY! That averages out to about four items a day :D My kitchen feels much lighter and I have more space which is just visually appealing. I hated looking at all that clutter!

I also cleaned out the pantry just yesterday (ouch). I was able to get rid of seven more things out of there and got the rest of it cleaned up and straightened out, reorganized. I've been waiting to update until I actually accomplished that bit of the challenge. Type A much? Sorry for such a long delay because of that one little thing. For some reason, I would have felt dishonest without having done that first.On top of all this, I'm actually posting from Hubby's computer. "My" computer's power cord no longer works, so it is currently dead. We've ordered another one, but I don't think it's going to get here until early June. Ugh. So.Over.This. All that to say, I won't be able to access the rest of the 31 Days to Clean study because it's on the dead computer. Makes me want to cry. So this will probably be one of the few posts until I can get the dead computer back up again. I'm committed to picking back up again. I'm also going to continue to do the Clutter Busting Challenge and am going to continue to chronicle the rest of that challenge. Hope to see you back!

Today the reading spoke about the curse and it's role in what we're dealing with in our striving for a clean home.

I know there are times when I feel like I can't make any progress on the house, and I get so overwhelmed by it, by how much I see needs to be done. I don't know about you, but I feel so frustrated sometimes when it just doesn't seem to go the way I intend for it, or when it takes twice as long to get done. All of this is because of the Curse.

I don't want to go into too much detail and take away from the book, but I will say I'm not sure I agree with the reason the author gives for the Curse. Regardless of that point, the Curse is something we all deal with daily. Sometimes we realize it, sometimes we don't. But either way, turning things around in our home is that much more backbreaking, now that I realize what we're up against. The Curse of all things! No wonder I haven't been able to do this cleaning thing on my own. I now realize just how much I NEED Jesus with me while I tackle this. Amazing I would even try to do this on my own. Wow.

What do you think of what we're facing during this challenge? Do you feel it's something else entirely?

Sorry I didn't post it last night. D-baby was not wanting me to go anywhere and wanted to cuddle with mama to go to sleep.

So yesterday I had to make a "Six List" for the day and start checking things off. Here's how my list ended up:

Not bad for the first try!

I also had to clean out my cabinets, reorganize an purge some stuff if it didn't belong anymore. Here's what I got rid of. I'm going to make this stone count for two birds and use this for my Clutter Busting Challenge.

~ Four coffee mugs
~ Two sippy cups
~ Three lids with no cups
~ One flip top cup that I've never really liked.

10 things for the day. I only got through 3 cabinets, and I have 6 left. We'll see how today goes. I'm hoping to get through most of them today.

I hope everyone's weekend went well! We've been battling more sickness here, so sorry for the lack of posts on time. I'm praying and taking action to make sure this week will be much better.

Today was day 6 in the 31DtC/CBC and the book reviewed "The Six List". You can see the original story here, but it's basically getting into the habit of writing down the six most important things for the day and then tackling them one by one.

I've seen this in Mary Kay before, but I never really took it to heart then. Now, I do something like that to keep the two most important chores going every day. I go through my morning routines and then start on the dishes and laundry. I figure these are the most important things to tackle here because if we're too busy for anything else, we'll at least have clean clothes and diapers for D-baby and we'll have clean dishes. Then I'll tackle the rest of the chores/projects the rest of the day.

I've tried to do it more like this before, but never really made it habit. I don't know if I'll stick with it like this, but I'll try for the challenge. I know there are a couple things I've been putting off for awhile, so maybe doing it this way will help me remember them much better than my current method, which can be a bit scattered at times.

So, how do you organize your day's tasks? Have you tried "The Six List" or something similar? I'd love to hear your thoughts!

Anyways, so here's the results of my day 4. I didn't get anyone invited over, but I did call a few people that day which resulted in me sitting down for a while instead of multitasking and cleaning while on the phone. It was so nice to be able to just sit for awhile and intentionally not worry about what mess was lurking behind the corner.

For day 4 I was also to clean the oven and microwave.

BLECH! I am so glad that's gone now!

Here's the oven. I've got it all sprayed down with oven cleaner. It's been sitting overnight, so I'll clean it up later on today.

For day 5, I thought about the way my priorities seem to be lined out right now. I still haven't come to a conclusion for how to best realign them to what I think they should be. Is it just that I need to spend more time on those that are important to me or do I just need to make it a heart adjustment? I'll really need to think on this more. For now, I think I'll use what was written in the book as a springboard for crafting my own set of priorities.

Today, I also cleaned up the glass door and the window in the kitchen. It was ugly, ya'll.

Here's the before of the door:

and the after:

I forgot I had needed to get 14 things for the Clutter Busting Challenge and ended up only getting 7 instead. I'll try to remember again today. Here's what I'm getting rid of:

~5 old, expired medications. I emptied out the bottles, but our recycling program doesn't take prescription bottles, so I just took off the old labels, washed them out and will re-purpose them to hold seeds from the garden. I am so glad these are out of my house!

I haven't gotten to post my Day 4 update yet, mostly because I haven't done it yet, so I'll be doing Days 4 and 5 together and posting them together tonight, including getting rid of 14 things total, since I didn't get to that yesterday either.

Today's passage is about the priorities in our lives. Most of us would say we have our priorities in line. But do our lives reflect what we say our priorities are? Probably not as much as we would like them to. I know this is true for me most every single day. I say certain things are at the forefront of my day, but are they really? Right now, my focus is getting to a more personal relationship with God through prayer at the start of my day. I know that if I don't do it first, it won't get done. And there have been many days I didn't put the effort into it.

I want my priorities to be God, Hubby/Marriage, Kids/Parenting, Home, Personal. But usually it ends up more like this: God, Home, Kids, Personal, Kids (again), Home (again), Personal (again) Hubby. This obviously isn't how I say I want my priorities to be lined up. God does get the first little bit of my time, but that's the only time He gets. Don't you think he deserves so much more. The house and kids are the next big areas, but mostly because I spend most of my waking moments with both of them in some capacity. I do get a little bit of personal time during naptime and sometimes when the kids are in bed. Hubby ends up dead last, mostly because he and I don't see each other much unless the kids are sleeping. We also rarely make an effort to spend time together apart from the kids during the times he is with us. Something's gotta change.

Today I'll be praying and focusing on what my priorities are as they stand, and how to get them where I want them to be. I'd like to hear your point of view too!

What are your priorities, and how do you get them back in line when things get off track?

Today we talked about how to make sure you have a house others feel welcomed in and not that is "untouchable". I've been in houses like that before. Not only is it untouchable, but to me it generally feels cold and unloving. That's not what we're aiming for here.

I've discussed with my husband a few times before about this kind of thing. He's always laughed and joked with me that I dream of a huge, fancy house that looks perfect and belongs in a magazine. Secretly my type A self would love that, but I don't want something that looks perfect for that reason alone. I want a house, any size house, that looks lived in and most of all, allows whomever walks in to feel loved or to see that "those who live here love here". Sterile and cold is just not my thing.